Aftermath of the story, Life is Strange game shenanigans (perhaps seeing the videos attached in the notes might help understand) which leads to Sans having a nightmare.
So basically I mention a game theory episode in particular here (this one: : https*:*/*/*www*.*youtube*.*com*/*watch*?*v*=*VoinS21NcPY&t*=*1s ) but another video that might be of interest to understand that sociopath and Psycopath part of Miranda's dialogueis this one: https*:*/*/*www*.*youtube*.*com*/*watch*?*v*=*KUsGDVOCLVQ
Finally, the song Rajani sings is this version of it: https*:*/*/*www*.*youtube*.*com*/*watch*?*v*=*VEgkBetZY*-*M
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-insert words- Is for written text
insert words Is for Miranda's mind talk and thoughts in general
insert words Is for Rajani's mind talk
insert words Is for sign language
_*insert words Is for battle commands
"InsertName" & INSERT STATS & *insert soul script Is for checking Soul Stats
+insert name and timeframe+ & +insert text+ Is for texting.
~insert lyrics~ Is for songs
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Chapter 24: Your Senses Will Cease to Resist.
Silence reigned in your room. Half way through recounting your story Dusk had gone to sit in your lap to comfort you. Your other cats were sitting on each side of you. Your dogs were with the kids, of course. They were better at helping you physically than emotionally.
When you had first started telling your story, Papyrus, Sans and Alphys had been somewhat interested whereas Undyne seemed a bit bored over the lack of action.
As the story progressed that had changed.
Papyrus had become unable to stand still, busying his gloved hands with some of the bubble wrap you had about in your room, inner conflict evident in his expression. Sans was… unreadable, and appeared to be monitoring your soul. The only sign of emotion he had was his flickered-out eye lights, leaving nothing but a black void behind. Alphys was visibly horrified, eyes wide and her yellow skin significantly paler. You now had Undyne's full attention. Her golden eye was fixed on you with not a single trace of boredom there.
"So, as you see." Rajani continued. "We never took love lightly. And now, more than ever, we can't afford to do so. When Mir falls in love, she's the kind to sell her soul to the devil just to make sure her loved one is fine. There's close to nothing she wouldn't do for the lucky guy. And we can't afford to have another asshole have that sort of power over her again. So, as much as your shipping shenanigans might amuse you to no end, we won't be able to correspond to your expectations in that department. We need for Mir to be cautious in regards to her love life. As for me? Well, now you know why I don't like and, most especially, don't trust any of you. I don't like you prying into our private business and re-opening old wounds but so long as Miranda is happy on the long run, I'll allow that to some extent. But if you ever decide to hurt her… . . ."
You shove Rajani out of control and amended.
"Sorry. Raj can be a bit over dramatic and exaggerate a lot of stuff."
"Did You Truly Try To Kill Yourself…?" Papyrus asked in a soft tone for once. It was so surprising that you felt a chill at how unnatural all of that was.
With a grave nod, you confirmed once again that part of the story and lifted your left sleeve, showing him a fading dark discoloration over where the scar had been. It was so surprising how something that could have reaped your life was now mostly gone so easily, as if denying all your pain.
Papyrus tackled you, making your cats hiss in displeasure at being forcefully dislodged.
"PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT EVER AGAIN. THE WORLD WOULD LOSE A MOST WONDERFUL PERSON AND THE GREAT PAPYRUS COULDN'T DEAL WITH THAT! NYOOHOOHOO!" He said, bawling his eye sockets out, dampening your typically white button up with an orange patch on your left shoulder.
You patted his back, not promising anything. You knew that, as well intended as that promise was, sometimes your biggest enemy was yourself. You had promised similar stuff before and hadn't been able to remain true to that. You wouldn't hurt Papyrus by breaking a promise you weren't sure you could uphold.
"I'm fine now, Papsy. I won't lie by telling you it no longer affects me, because it does. But now the pain has turned into mere bitterness over all of my own self I wasted on them both. Even my sanity. Please don't cry for me."
Your reply was an even more vigorous 'NYOOHOOHOO!'.
"That… guy… just got to WALK AWAY FROM THAT!?" Undyne suddenly blew up. "After all he did!?"
You said nothing. Rajani replied in your stead.
"Don't worry, Fishy Vriska. I have enough connections to deny him his dream job at Warner Bros. or any other animation company he could apply to. But those won't even be necessary, considering how painfully mediocre he was and probably still is." She said bitterly.
"THAT'S A BIT HARSH MIRAN- WAIT, ARE YOU RAJANI NOW?"
"Yup, but I'll give her body back right now."
"THIS IS SO VERY CONFUSING!"
"I… understand." You said. You really couldn't make it any less confusing so all you could do was understand everyone's plight. "I'm sorry."
"Nah. Don't apologize, punk! Yeah, you're different, but that's what's good about you! Both of you, in fact!"
"THAT'S TRUE, MIRANDA OR… ER… RAJANI?"
"It's Miranda now." You inform with a weak smile breaking your sad frown.
Undyne plopped on the bed in the opposite side from Papyrus and draped an arm around your shoulders. You knew it was her way of showing you the same care Papyrus had. Undyne was far more rough with her way of comforting people than any of the others were.
It was pretty obvious they wanted to ask more about the subject of your past but didn't want to step on a landmine accidentally. They seemed to doubt your word that you were ok.
"Really, guys. It's been six years since that happened. Believe me when I say that I'm ok now. The first year was the hardest one. Everything after that, when it comes to those two, has gone swimmingly. It's still not something I want made public, though. OK?"
"O-o-o-o-ok."
You sighed. It was always difficult for you to start talking, unlike with Rajani, but you always felt so much lighter afterwards. Your cats joined you and the two monsters holding you for some cuddling. You eyed the two remaining monsters.
"Get over here too, you two! C'mon, let's make this a group hug!"
They hesitantly joined on you monster/human/cat pile. You even felt Rajani discreetly join in on the hug which made you smile.
"Well. Fluff time over. We need to keep an eye on those kids. And we are getting side tracked from the reason we're celebrating in the first place!"
"O-oh! You're right."
You let go of each other and you stood up from your bed.
"O-oh! B-by the way. I w-wanted to r-run an id-d-dea through you! I-if you d-don't mind…" Alphys said as you prepared to leave your room. Everyone else had already vacated before you, Undyne dragging Papyrus and Sans teleporting down.
"Oh. Go ahead. I'm all ears."
"W-w-well… Considering h-how confusing it i-i-is whenever Rajani sp-p-peaks through you I w-was wondering… I was considering b-building a comunic-c-c-cator to be attatched at t-t-t-the side of your s-s-soul she inhabits. T-t-that way s-she wouldn't need to pull y-y-y-you out all of the t-t-t-time."
The stuttering confused you a bit so you kindly asked her to repeat and then explain what her plan was. Apparently she'd come up with the idea of building a mini robot in resemblance to Kyoko's demons that would have a magic antenna connected to Rajani's side of your soul and would enable her to communicate to others without having to take over your body. It would help other keep track of who was talking at the moment.
She explained to you that she had the basics sketched up and all there was left was to actually build it and test it to see if there would be the need for adjustments. You were actually kind on interested in it. It was also a way for you to investigate how your own soul worked and learn new things from the dinosaur monster. So, you agreed.
You both returned downstairs once all was settled.
"Hey! What took you guys so long?" Undyne asked ask she saw you enter the living room.
"Alphys was pitching me an idea to help with the Rajani confusion. Soon I'll have a mini me robot floating around through which Rajani will speak through."
"M-M-M-Miranda! I-I-I-I-I-I only h-have t-the b-b-blueprints! We d-d-d-don't even k-know if it'll w-work!" Alphys blurted out nervously.
"Nah! Knowing you, you'll have it running by the end of the month! You are my genius little scientist, after all!" Undyne reassured her with all the confidence the yellow dinosaur lacked.
Alphys blushed prettily and you looked away from the diabetic inducing display of affection to focus on the kids. You realized that Frisk had reached the very last choice in the game. The one where they got to choose between saving the town by going back in time and letting the protegonist's best friend Chloe be shot to death or letting the whole town be ravaged by a hurricane and keeping the friend alive.
"How did you get here so fast?" You asked, feeling very much surprised. You felt slightly curious about all the choices they had done so far but, considering how long the game was, you felt much more curious about how Frisk had managed to finish it in an afternoon.
"Determination!" That was one of the first words that you had managed to memorize from their ASL. They used that word a lot.
"Yo, I don't like this choice!" MK commented. Frisk seemed very much on edge over what to choose either.
"It is a very difficult one." You admitted.
"Have you _ this _?" Frisk asked.
You squinted at the question, filling in the blanks from your lack of knowledge.
"Have I… Played?" They nod. "No, But I did watch some theories and Sin counters."
"sin counters?" Sans asked suddenly.
"Yup! You know, mistakes and things that aren't ok with whatever movie or game they make the video about. They also can be named movie or game mistakes, but I mainly call them sin counters since sometimes they detract points over thing I don't understand the reasoning to. Then again it might be more of a socially acknowledged mistake rather than a factual one. That game has a lot of them." Frisk nodded in agreement at that.
"REALLY? HOW SO?"
"Well, the whole time traveling shtick is all messed up, for example. First time she does it the thing that is established is that she returns exactly to the place she had been in before, meaning even her body position was rewound by the power. But then, on the multiple times she uses it next all that resets is the world around her, as she remains on her current position. And that begs the question: What happens to the version of her that was on the original place? Does she vanish? And if so, how come no one notices? It causes a paradox. And then all of the sudden, for no good reason they decide that she can rewind using photographs without explaining how she reaches that conclusion. How does she know she can rewind to the time of a photo?"
"THAT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE! IN THE SENSE THAT THE GAME DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, THAT IS." Papyrus conceded.
"Honestly, if they decided that time travel is a thing then they should make it consistent and chose one of two ways. Either the person themselves is rewound, memories aside; or only the world around goes back which means that there should be a version of the person walking about that they might run into. That begs the question of: if you go back to change the past, what reason would you give past you to rewind and do the same? Especially if the reason you rewound on the first place had no involvement of future you?... GAH, I know I'm being confusing! Heck, Homestuck explains this stuff way better than me!" You exclaim at seeing the tall skeleton's confused expression.
"no, no. i get it." Sans inserts, though you hadn't been explaining to him. "there's… time travel in homestuck?"
"Yeah, you never reached that part. Let's just say that Homestuck timelines work this way: There's an alpha timeline. That timeline is defined by the one that has most survivors from all of the Sburb gameplays. Meaning it's not just the humans you saw. There are other players from other universes. Even if there are timelines of one of those universes where everyone survives, because it's not connected to the other gameplays and the other people to survive, causing their death due to a lack of team work, then it can't be considered an Alpha timeline. Those timelines that aren't the Alpha ones are doomed to vanish eventually. There is also one character in each group that is able to travel through time, which is why there are timelines in the first place, ensuring they get the best possible outcome. Say that one key player dies when they are not supposed to. That character will go back in time to stop it. Homestuck works with two sorts of time travel consequences on the game. A stable loop, in which that character sees future him going back in time to save that person and makes sure to do it too in the future to avoid all the time manipulation shenanigans that could ensue. Or, If the character goes back to a time they aren't supposed to, they'll eventually find death because they aren't supposed to alter the Alpha timeline. Then there's eventually a wild card that surpasses that sense of 'fate', but that a spoiler for way in the future."
"The more you talk about that Homestuck thing, the nerdier it sounds!" Undyne intervenes with her face screwed in distaste.
"Well, this is one side of it. There are several. Especially when the Trolls enter the picture. I'm pretty sure you and Alphys would appreciate all the Troll romance quadrants." You winked.
"R-romance Q-q-quadrants?" Alphys asked, suddenly very interested.
"Yup. Trolls have four kinds of romance. Rajani's favorite character explains all about it…. or tries to. In the end the narrator does it for him." You chuckle.
With all your talk of Homestuck, you all ended up watching the whole voice acting of Act 1, which ended with a meteor falling on the main character's house and uncertainty over whether he was able to survive or not. You admitted that it was pretty boring at first, but you liked it enough. Undyne gritted her teeth through the whole of it, pretty impatient. Papyrus seemed to find it amusing, especially when it came to the capchalogue modus shenanigans and how puzzling the way it worked was. Alphys was pretty interest in the capchalogue modus she had seen, relating them to some programing and computer stuff. The kids seemed pretty entertained themselves and Sans was mostly bored since he had already seen part of Act 1.
Only after watching Homestuck did Frisk go back to the game choice he had put aside until then, still unsure of what to choose. Everyone gave their opinions on the subject. You abstained.
"I-I-I-I-I'm not s-sure I c-c-could make that choice." Alphys said looking very much haunted for some reason.
"HUMAN FRISK! I'M VERY MUCH CONFLICTED ABOUT THIS CHOICE, ARE THERE NO OTHERS?" Papyrus asks.
"I… would do it. I wouldn't like it. I would hate it but… As a Royal Guard it's my duty to uphold the safety of the people even if… no. NO! I WOULD FIND ANOTHER WAY! I'M SURE. I WOULD KEEP BOTH THE CITY SAFE AND MY BEST FRIEND ALIVE! THAT'S WHAT HEROES DO, AFTER ALL! FUHUHUHUH!" Undyne added and MK rushed to agree with her.
"So, you try not to have to make that choice, but if you had you would chose duty?" You asked to confirm.
"Putting it that way makes me seem callous, punk." Undyne commented. "What about you?"
"To be honest? I would be very much indecisive and try to have others chose for me. I don't do well with choices and I don't want anyone to die. If there was one end I could chose if I could freely alter the game, it would be going back and taking the gunshot myself. That way my best friend would be alive, someone would still die and maybe that would appease fate and the same thing wouldn't happen."
"WHAT ABOUT YOU, BROTHER?"
"i would be too lazy to do anything."
"SANS! THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!"
"alright, alright. i would probably choose the city. according to frisk she has other friends there too. and her best friend is constantly getting herself into trouble and almost dying."
"Interesting…" You said.
"what?"
"I'm just wondering if you are detaching yourself too much of the situation or not. You are thinking solely logically, I think, with no other factors in mind."
"how so?"
"What she means…" Rajani said taking over your body. "is that she doubts you would make that choice if the things you would be weighing instead of fictional characters where your brother against everyone else in the Underground."
Sans' eye lights vanished and sweat covered his forehead.
"Raj, that is a mean way to put it!" You said and she took over so that others could hear her reply. "It's true, though."
"Well, I, for one, would choose my best friend. Let all those other suckers die!" Flowey intervened.
"That's an interesting reply too, Flowey." You commented.
"What, because I'm an evil psychopathic being that wouldn't mind watching the world burn?"
"No, quite the opposite." You said. "It shows that, for all your bragging of how you don't have feelings and such, you would still choose the to save your best friend."
"Well, duh!" He said as if obvious.
"Do you know that these game circumstances can actually be used to measure whether you may have psychopathy and sociopathy or not?" You asked.
Frisk turned to you and signed.
"Really!?"
"Yup. It is pretty similar to what is known as 'the trolley problem' by Phillippa Foot and the version later invented of that same problem. Both psychopathy and sociopathy are distinct by their lack of empathy towards others and impossibility on forming meaningful relationships. Choosing to save a loved one over strangers serves to show you have empathy and are capable of forming meaningful relationships. That doesn't immediately mean that those who chose the other path are immediately considered psychopaths, merely that they fall on the intuitive spectrum of personality. It might also mean that, in a gaming perspective, the person isn't really immersed into the gameplay and/or are a lot more rational about the choice." You explain. "It is also why I thought Sans hadn't really put himself into that character's shoes and was just seeing things in an analytical and detached manner. He is far too protective towards his friends and family to lack any empathy, even if he more than likely is in the intuitive spectrum of personality." Flowey seemed to want to angrily deny your claims about himself but you had drowned his protests.
"O-oh! T-t-that's interesting." Alphys commented, interrupting him further.
"True that." By this time Flowey gave up on inputting anything since you were always interrupting him anyway.
"How do you know all of this, punk!?" Undyne asked.
"I read a lot?"
"Yeah, but… why this?"
"To know myself better. I am very much on edge between both sides. I am very rational and know that sacrificing my friend would ensure the survival of a lot of people and that side of me is screaming for me to save them. But I also put a lot of weight on my relationships and that empathetic side of me is screaming for me to save my friend. That's why I say that, with just those choices presented to me and none more, I would probably wait for someone else to take the choice away from my hands and would easily sacrifice myself if I had the option of doing so."
"Oh!"
"And I would choose my mind sis over some assholes that couldn't care less about me!" Rajani said through you.
As you looked around to see everyone's reactions to Rajani's outburst you noticed how uncomfortable Sans seemed with the topic and decided to change it.
"Do… you think the trial tomorrow will be ok?" You asked nervously since you couldn't think of anything else to talk about.
"Sure will, punk!"
"HAVE FAITH IN THE LAWMASTER HUMAN. HE SAID EVERYTHING WOULD BE OK SO IT WILL! I BELIEVE IN HIM!"
Soon you were far too distracted to notice how Sans was still looking very much on edge over the information you relayed. He sneaked into his room while no one was watching.
After calming your nervous self down, they proceeded by discussing other things you could do to celebrate. You ended up watching a movie marathon and insisted one showing them the 'How to Train Your Dragon' movies.
They loved them and kept commenting on them.
You watched as, slowly, everyone around you fell asleep, too nervous to do so yourself.
You decide you would do some reading before attempting to sleep. You needed to be well rested for the following day, after all. But first you would go get a snack from the kitchen. You took a cookie from a jar that Toriel kept on a higher shelf. It was chocolate chip, tender in the middle and very, very delicious!
As you were walking back to the living, room. Half eaten cookie in your hand, you heard a faint sound from upstairs. It was probably Toriel or Asgore.
They had returned home somewhere in the midst of your movie marathon but hadn't bothered to cook dinner for you because of all the snacking that was undergoing, as much as Toriel disliked that her Frisk wasn't eating healthy.
You climbed the stairs and noticed that Dusk was in front of a bedroom, scratching at the door. It wasn't neither Toriel's nor Asgore's room door. It was Sans' and you realize that you hadn't seen him down in the living room for a while. For quite some time, in fact.
Bluish light seemed to come from the crack below the door and you could hear some whimpers. A nightmare? That would explain Dusk. You had trained her to comfort you in your sleep whenever you had some PTSD induced nightmare. The fact that you were usually quiet meant that she was even more attuned to nightmare detecting. The fact that Sans was being reasonably vocal about his meant that Dusk was getting pretty worked up. You couldn't let her in. You now knew that monsters could attack without meaning to while asleep if they felt in danger.
Nothing like a nightmare to feel very much in danger.
You didn't like knowing others were in pain or afraid. You attempted to open the door, being careful so as not to let your cat through. It was locked. Nothing Rajani couldn't fix.
Do we really have to? I don't want to help this asshole!
Do it for me. Pleasy. Pwetty pwease! You attempted to make the biggest mental puppy dog eyes you could.
Geez, you are way too nice to others! Fine!
She got some improvised lock picks. She wasn't an expert at picking locks but she was stubborn enough so as not to give up whenever she failed. Having a door that constantly got stuck at your old house had been a good way to practice that stubbornness.
Soon the door made a click indicating it was open. You ordered Dusk to go back downstairs and only after she obeyed, albeit very reluctantly, did you open the door and peeked inside.
Sans was very much having a nightmare, that's for sure. Things were hovering around in the air like some sort of paranormal horror movie and the skeleton looked like he was struggling with something, twitching like mad.
You walked in, intending on waking him up, but as soon as you touched him you felt your soul being drawn out of your body and saw as a deep royal blue covered it. You felt odd, like all control was being forcefully taken from you and you couldn't regain it. Like desperately trying to hold onto a ledge that was covered in oil so you wouldn't fall to your death.
You relaxed a bit when you felt Rajani automatically take charge, though not by much! You were still in danger after all. You felt yourselves be lifted by your soul. It felt very much different than from when he used that very same power on your body alone. It felt like he was literally grabbing your whole body-weight by your heart, putting a strain of it.
In short, it hurt a lot.
Still Rajani managed to upright herself in time to hit the wall with your feet, like she was simply landing from a jump, rather than with your back.
Sans' hand twitched again and you were sent towards the floor and then the ceiling, with Rajani managing to always gracefully land on her feet. You never though that Rajani was so agile. She had never seemed to be able to be this much agile before.
She took the chance that she was near Sans bed to try and jump up towards him and tackled the slumbering skeleton, holding onto him for dear life.
You did felt that his weight countered yours but only a little since he was that much lighter, and you fell to the ceiling again, this time reasonably slower than before.
"Wake up! You god forsaken cueball!" Rajani protested after landing on the ceiling, only to see she was being dragged down to yet another wall, this time faster because it wasn't in the opposite direction of the actual Earth gravity.
You *checked Sans to see if he would wake up soon.
.
"Sans"
LV
HP 1
AT 1 (1) EXP:
DF 1 (1)
*Sans is having a nightmare.
.
As soon as Rajani glimpsed the very same thing as you she got distracted enough that you actually got slammed into the wall, but she did make sure to protect the skeleton at the last moment.
"THIS FUCKASS HAS FREAKING 1 HP!?" She said, surprised.
You were pretty surprised yourself. You never thought the skeleton would be so fragile. You remember faintly of when Alphys told you about soul health regarding yours. Bad environment could lower your HP but he wasn't living in one. Which only left one option regarding such a ridiculously low amount of it. Trauma or depression.
How bad did it had to be to reach such low values?
Rajani started trying to awake him, this time much less aggressively than before, when she was shaking him.
You tried to come out to help, but somehow you couldn't. It felt different from when Rajani tried to keep you from taking over… but then again, she wasn't usually resolved enough to stop you completely and if you were determined enough you would easily shove her aside. Maybe this time she was just more determined than you?
You decided not to think about it. There were more important things she needed to concentrate on.
Hug him.
WHAT!?
Holding him like you're about to strangle him and shaking him harder than a pair of maracas isn't helping. We don't know what he is dreaming about so talking isn't an option so try to give him some physical reassurance.
I know that! But… URGH! He owes me BIG TIME!
Rajani hugged him to her and started to pet his smooth skull soothingly. She had always been good at helping you, albeit there was the difference that you two shared the same body. Helping him wasn't much different. She just didn't like hugging people she wasn't particularly fond of and Sans had at least a negative brownie point or two on Rajani's book currently.
You didn't need to prod her into doing something else she also did to cheer you up. She did it naturally.
~Trust in me. Just in me.~ Rajani sang quietly. ~Shut your eyes, trust in me.~
The song was originally used by Kaa, a deceiving, manipulative snake in The Jungle Book movie, as he hypnotized young Mowgly into sleep. Rajani used it in a vastly different context. She used it to sooth you whenever you had a nightmare that was particularly bad.
It wasn't a song either of you knew prior to… to THAT moment. She only learned it afterwards and had become a way to anchor you to the present and drag you out of the past. You had learned to associate that tune and lyrics as something that clearly doesn't belong to the timeframe of your nightmares. It helped you snap out of it.
~You can sleep, safe and sound
Knowing I am around~
The tight frown in Sans face loosened a bit and the twitching on his left hand that had been sending you from side to side slowed.
~Slip into silent slumber
Sailing on a silver mist
Slowly and surely your senses
Will cease to resist~
His hand stopped but you remained floating as if in gravity zero.
~Just relax, be at rest
Like a bird in a nest
Trust in me, just in me
Shut your eyes, trust in me~
Slowly you were lowered onto the floor. Rajani had her eyes closed as she sang so you weren't exactly sure of what was happening. You did feel Sans grasp onto your clothes firmly, though.
Sensing that the skeleton was far more calm Rajani slowed the last verse adding a soothing rub to his scalp.
~Trust in me, just in me
Shut your eyes, trust in me…~
"uh?" It seemed he was awake at last. Rajani opened your eyes and looked at him.
"Awake at last, Cueball!" She said and though her tone was still a bit harsh, it wasn't as distaste filled as usual. Rajani always had a weak spot for taking care of others in their time of need. For someone that claimed to dislike people in general, she did have a big, fuzzy and soft heart underneath all the stone.
-Sans POV—
Sans looked around, feeling very much dazed, a soothing tune ringing in his head. He wasn't in bed but yes in a warm soft surface. A surface that talked. That's when he noticed the soul floating in his Indigo magic and bathing the room in calming blue hues.
He noticed finally that the surface the he was grasping was in fact Miranda. Startled, he quickly jumped away.
"wha-!?" what are you doing in my room He finished in his thoughts.
"Dusk was worried about you having a nightmare. Mir insisted we help you."
So… he was talking to Rajani, then?
"how-!?" how did you get in!? Once again, he could only finish his inquiry via thoughts.
"I picked the lock. Mir was really worried, since you were whimpering so much." She was clearly relentless in making him feel pathetic. He hated knowing he had made such a pathetic sound.
"why-?"
"Didn't I tell you already? Mir was worried."
"not that. why you?" He finally managed to form a coherent sentence.
He, so far as he had observed, had thought that Rajani disliked him greatly. It puzzled him that she'd been the one helping.
"No idea why, but Miranda was forced out of control and someone has to keep the ship running. And if I didn't do it she would be pissed at me." She then seemed to stop and stare blankly ahead. "Oh! Miranda wants to ask you to let go of our soul. I agree with her. It hurts to have it being held like this."
Oops. He'd forgotten that. He dissipated his magic quickly and a surprised expression crossed Rajani's face.
"Ok, my work here is done. Now Miranda'll take care of you. Bye."
With that, the dual colored soul went from glowing brighter on the blue side to the gray side, as the expressions on her face when from aloof to blank, to finally settle in a gently smile
"I hope you're feeling better." She said.
"y-yeah. i, uh, I'm fine."
"No, you're not. But with some time and clever distractions you will be." Miranda said as she stood up and forced him to stand too.
It bothered him that she was right. He was anything but fine after that nightmare and did feel grateful that she had awoken him. If she hadn't… he would have dreamed of even worse things.
Ever since that comment about his choice in the 'Life is Strange' game, and the explanation both of them had provided, that he had felt greatly disturbed.
When he had first thought of that choice he had automatically placed Frisk in place of Chloe, the best friend in the game, and the whole of the underground monsters in place of the town.
As much as he liked the kid, he had been through enough resets and genocide runs to not hesitate when faced between choosing the kid or everyone else.
And then she'd pointed out that he probably wouldn't have felt the same way if it had been Papyrus in place of Chloe.
And he came to realize that he would quickly put the whole of the underground aside for the sake of his brother!
What kind of a judge was he that he wouldn't even hesitate to sacrifice everyone else just so that his brother could live.
That had mixed with his usual genocide nightmare having the megalomaniac kid forcing him to choose. But they hadn't demanded that he just picked one of the choices. They wanted to force him to personally go around killing every single monster or else they would kill his brother. And they were always just there, knife held to his brother's neck vertebrae, following him around with a malevolent smirk, making sure he didn't pretend to murder anyone and secretly let them escape. Trying to attack the human almost got his bother killed too.
What shamed him most about the dream was that he had almost done it.
…
. . .
Just as he had gotten enough resolve to do it that song had snapped him out of it. It slowly lulled him away from that place and he slowly realized that he was asleep and forced himself to wake up.
He felt so relieved to realize that it had all been a nightmare and that it was over now.
He wasn't really paying attention to Miranda as she led him downstairs, so focused that he was in piecing his nightmare together and trying to come to terms with it. Only when they reached the kitchen and she placed a warm mug full of milk in front of him did he focus on her again.
"Ah, you're finally back from that far away galaxy in your skull." She noted. He must have been really out of it. "I can't sleep. I was going to watch another movie. Want to come? I'm pretty sure you won't be sleeping anytime soon either.
He nodded and then paused.
"aren't you going to… ask?" please don't ask!
"Are you offering to tell?"
"what? no!" pleasedon'taskpleasedon'taskpleasedon'task…
"Then no, I'm not going to ask." A pause. "I hope you like Lilo and Stich."
"what?" she isn't? why? who? what?
"It's the main characters' names." She informed him.
They spent some time watching the movie as he drank his milk and ate a cookie she retrieved from the kitchen.
He would have liked to say he was paying attention to the movie, but instead he was more focused on the calming presence of the girl. The couch was taken by the kids so they were sitting just in front of it, using it as their backrest and Sans sat closer to the woman than he ever let himself to.
At this moment, he really needed to feel her there. He needed to know he wasn't back there again, just with a different scenery. When she didn't react in any way to his closeness he dared to lean on her.
She did jerk a bit in surprise. Then, with one quick glance at him she looped an arm around his shoulders, bringing him closer. She gave him an understanding smile before turning her attention back to the movie.
Nope, he really wouldn't be paying much attention to the movie. Her presence brought back his sleepiness. All he would remember later on of the movie was finally understanding what she meant with Ohana when referring to Grillby.
Family…
That was one concept he could get behind.
She leaned her head on his skull and he could feel he wasn't the only one who was heeding sandman's calling. Soon both were asleep, bodies slipping to the floor.
The movie went on without them, the only witness to their intimate moment of understanding and comfort.